


Betrayed by the Hashtag

by Costello_Music



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Gen, Minor Aunt May, Minor MJ, Peter is trying his best, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Sickfic, Who needs self preservation, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 09:17:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15682464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Costello_Music/pseuds/Costello_Music
Summary: His mistake was checking his phone. If he hadn't he wouldn't be out right now, and he wouldn't know how bad tonight was turning out to be. But he was here now, and he couldn't just go home now. No matter how bad he felt.“If you would’ve taken care of it earlier, it wouldn’t be this serious now.”





	Betrayed by the Hashtag

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to sickficlurker for the prompt! 
> 
> “If you would’ve taken care of it earlier, it wouldn’t be this serious now.”

Today had sucked.

Actually so far this week had sucked, and Peter was over it. He’d forgotten about an English test on Monday, had accidentally slammed into a building while patrolling on Tuesday. He’d had a headache since first period Wednesday and a slight cough by the end of the day. Thursday morning May noticed that he might, in fact, be coming down with something and confronted him about it.

“You alright? You’re looking a bit pale there,” she asked looking carefully at him as he shuffled into the kitchen to grab some breakfast.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just overslept I think,” Peter responded grabbing a muffin he didn’t really want off the table. May didn’t look convinced by this.

“You sure, you sound like you’re getting a cold or something,” May said, leaning against the kitchen counter.

“No, I’m good. Promise. I’ll see you after school ok,” Peter replied hastily and grabbed his backpack making his way to the door.

“Alright. See you then. Have a good day,” May replied, her eyebrow still slightly raised.

“Love you,” Peter said as he left the apartment.

It was now Friday and he should have known that today wasn’t going to be any better when he woke with that same headache, coughing, and running late for school.

 “Hey Pete, you planning on getting up soon?” May called from his doorway.

“Just five more minutes May,” Peter mumbled as he pulled his blanket over his head to block out the light.

“Sure, but you need to leave in fifteen minutes so you’ll be late if you do. Unless you’re not feeling well,” May replied almost nonchalantly.

With that he sat up. “No, no. I’m fine. I’m up. I’m up.”

It didn’t get any better from there. He somehow managed to convince May that he was well enough to go to school, which honestly he didn’t think he felt that bad. But the noise of the train ride to school was bordering on too much for his already aching head and his control on his senses was slipping. And it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet. School wasn’t much better either. By the time he was walking up to his locker his throat had decided to join the party his head was throwing and was starting to throb as well.

Getting to the end of the day was a bit of a struggle. There were moments during all his classes where he dearly wanted to just fall asleep but couldn’t. Even chemistry was teaching something he was a little unfamiliar with, which Peter though was just rude. He also didn’t want to draw attention to himself but his cough was getting worse and even he couldn’t deny by this point that he was sick.

“Why don’t you just go home?” MJ asked him at lunch time, not even bothering to look up from her book, after he had another coughing fit. She hadn’t turned a page yet despite them sitting at the table for more than five minutes.

“There’s like, two more periods left. There’s no point now,” he replied, his voice taking on a slight rasp. He looked up at her, he wasn’t really interested in whatever Friday special the cafeteria had served anyway. “I’ll be fine.”

This she did look up at. “Sure. Convincing. Just don’t die then ok. Cause if you leave us permanently with Flash I’ll personally resurrect you just to kill you again, ok.”

Peter blinked at this. “Uh, sure.”

He didn’t know how he made it through his last two classes but after what felt like an eternity the final bell rang. He was barely paying attention to what he shoved in his backpack he was just eager to get out of there.

He had just reached Ned’s locker when his phone started vibrating in his pocket. He grabbed it out and the caller ID was one under any other circumstance he was excited to hear from; but today he just felt like the world was out to get him.

“Who’s calling?” Ned started asking as Peter turned his phone around to show him before  dropping his backpack by Ned’s locker and walking over to the nearest empty class room he could find. His phone had stopped ringing by this point but he knew that Mr Stark would start calling again in a minute unless Peter messaged him that he couldn’t get to a more secure location. Sure enough as he closed the door his phone started ringing again. Peter tried to get his face to look as excited as he normally would be when his mentor called him but even he could tell that he was missing that mark today. He swiped over the accept button and Mr Starks face appeared on the screen.

“Hey Mr Stark,” Peter answered sounding mostly cheerful and only slightly hoarse.

“Hey Kid,” Tony answered, seemingly not noticing that anything was wrong with this greeting. “So I was thinking, once you’re done with your Spidermanning tonight since it’s the weekend and all we could start on some of your suit upgrades. If tonight’s too late then definitely tomorrow. Got any thoughts about this?”  

Working on suit upgrades or doing anything in Tony’s lab upstate was still rare enough to be a special treat and a huge deal for Peter. He averaged going up about one weekend a month since the Homecoming debacle, but it had only been a couple of weeks since he’d last been up.

“Sounds great Mr Stark,” Peter answered and immediately started coughing again.

There was a pause as Tony looked over him, looking like he actually noticed the state Peter was in for the first time.

“You still got that cough kid? Don’t think I haven’t noticed that in your calls this week” he asked, failing to hide the disbelief in his voice.

“Uh, maybe,” Peter replied sheepishly. Adding in a rush, “but I’m fine Mr Stark really, it’s just a cold I’m sure my healing will take care of it in no time.”

Tony blinked.

“Ok. If you’re sure kid. Anyway Happy will come get you at some point. What time works best for you and whatever homework or whatever you have?”

 “Anytime really Mr Stark. Though-” Peter started and was cut off by another harsh cough. Tony looked vaguely concerned at this though he did his best to hide it.

“You know what. Executive decision. I’ll get Happy to come get you tomorrow and you can take it easy tonight. So be ready by 9 or so.”

“But-“ Peter started but Tony ignored him with a “so it’s settled. See you tomorrow kid,” and hung up.

Peter sighed as he put his phone back in his pocket. A part of him was glad that he had some extra time for his healing factor to get over whatever cold he had, but another part of him was disappointed that his time upstate was going to be cut short. He went over to the door where Ned was still waiting for him outside the room with both their bags.

“So what did Mr Stark want?” he asked, picking up his own bag as Peter grabbed his. They started heading down the hall.

“Just going to work on my suit tomorrow upstate. No big deal,” Peter replied with a small grin.

“Oh man. That’s so cool,” Ned gushed. Peter’s grinned widened for a second before it was ruined by another coughing fit. Ned frowned at this.

“Pity you’re sick though. You going to be ok?” he asked. The look Peter shot his friend could only be described as a pout.

“I’ll be fine. I’m counting on my healing kicking in by then so it shouldn’t be a problem,” Peter replied.

“Ok man,” Ned replied with a hint of scepticism. Peter had been saying this for the last three days but Ned didn’t know enough about his powers to tell if it were true or not. He dropped the matter as they were close enough to the front of the school that any students left were still milling around. They walked in relative silence towards the station.  On days when Peter patrolled in the afternoon he left Ned there and went to one of Mr Stark’s old Avenger safehouses to drop his bag off and leave from there. When he had the night off or started later in the evening they caught the train together.

 “You know,” Ned suddenly spoke up next to him once they were close to the ramp that led up to the platform. “I wouldn’t want to be you when May finds out.”

Peter paused at that. It was a good point. May had begrudgingly come around to his, after school activities, but not without her own set of rules. Going patrolling while sick was high up on the no list. A large part of him knew that Ned was right and that he should take it easy tonight. This week had sucked, and he clearly wasn’t getting any better. Plus it had been hard enough to convince May he was alright that morning, and he did seem to have the night off.

He sighed, which miraculously did not trigger a coughing fit this time. Ned was looking at him expecting an answer.

“Yeah. Good point. We better hurry if we don’t want to miss the train then.”

 xxx

 His apartment was silent when he entered. May, it turned out, was not home from work yet and the effort it was going to take to check her schedule on the fridge was too much right now. Instead he just bee-lined for the couch and turned the TV on, pulling the blanket draped around the couch around him. Usually if he came home on a night where he didn’t have to stay home he had to do his homework before anything else, besides a quick snack. But if everyone considered him too sick to patrol tonight then he was too sick to consider doing homework, his agreement with his aunt be damned. He settled for rewatching some shows on Netflix while he waited for his aunt to come home.

In the end he couldn’t decide if it was a mistake or a good thing that he checked his phone a few hours later. Out of habit he opened twitter which had the Spiderman hashtag feed going which was detailing a robbery a few blocks away wondering where he was. By now it was the last thing he wanted to do. He was tired, a little cold, and his chest was starting to ache. He’d basically been given permission to take the night off. But he couldn’t ignore this, not when it was so close to him. So he got up and grabbed his suit from his bag and went into his room to change.

Pulling on the mask Karen greeted him. “Hello Peter. There is a robbery downtown that I have plotted the fastest route for. Would you like me to direct you there?”

“Yeah Karen that would be great,” he replied hoarsely. He hadn’t spoken in a few hours and apparently that was all his voice needed to abandon him.

“You seem unwell Peter. Would you like me to cancel the route?” She asked pleasantly as the map popped up on the right side of his vision.

“No no, it’s fine. I’ll take care of this then come right back,” he replied shaking his head as he opened his bedroom window. The stairs might be a nuisance sometimes but since becoming Spiderman he was grateful they lived on the seventh floor. It was dark enough by now that he didn’t have to worry about leaving from the roof and one thing being Spiderman had taught him was that no one ever really looked up. Especially in the dark.

It didn’t take long to swing down to the robbery and web up the guys responsible. There were a couple of hostages but they seem unharmed and he could hear the sirens in the distance so he wasted no time swinging away, feeling in no way up to arguing with the police.   

“I’ve plotted the fasted route home if you want Peter,” Karen said as the map updated on the side of his vision.

“Sounds good Karen,” he replied landing on top of the building as the cops pulled up below him. Pausing to cough he then turned and walked to the other side of the building. “Though. There isn’t anything else I need to help with now that I’m out is there?”

“I could run a scan through the city if you like,” Karen replied. Peter coughed once again.

“Yeah, you might as well do that. I’m already here,” he said. 

“Would you like me to inform Mr Stark that you’ve come out tonight after all?” Karen asked as part of the left side of his vision flicked rapidly through text that indicated Karen’s scans were working.

“No. No that should be ok. I won’t be long. May will be home soon anyway so I’ll just do whatever I can along the way home,” Peter replied, with a few coughs dispersed through.

“Ok, well there appears to be…”

xxx

 Peter’s intentions may have been good but almost an hour later found him still swinging around the city. He gave up trying to go back home after a while since every time he tried there was someone else committing a crime or in need of some kind of assistance. Which was kind of rude since every other night he’d been out this last week had been incredibly slow and now that he wanted it to be slow he couldn’t catch a break.  It was just his luck really.

He made it another hour into patrol before he had to take a break. It was getting harder to make quips at bad guys when talking triggered a coughing fit every damn time now. And he was tired. So tired. Maybe Ned and Mr Stark was right after all, and maybe he shouldn’t have checked his phone in the first place either. He webbed up to the highest building he could and found the cleanest place on the roof he could and laid down so he could see the stars. He was going to ignore the city below him for five minutes before he got back to it. It took him all of five seconds to realise that lying down was a very bad idea right now when he started coughing and couldn’t stop so got up to lean against the edge of the building.

“Peter I sense that you are in distress right now. I highly recommend you head home now. I’ve calculated the fastest route there” Karen’s voice piped up in his ear as once again the map appeared in the right side of his vision.

“I’m fine Karen. Give me five minutes and I’ll be good,” he responded lazily once his breathing was back under control.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea Peter. My scans indicate that the congestion in your chest is getting worst, and your reflexes have been slower this evening.”

Yeah Peter could feel that too. It was getting harder and harder to believe that it was just a cold and his healing factor would take care of it in no time. His chest was aching worst now than it had when he’d gotten home and his throat was killing him. He barely had a voice anymore. The part of him with actual self-preservation knew he was being ridiculous and the city survived on the nights May forced him to take off. And he knew that when May heard him she was going to be horrified and force him to rest. But the other, more stubborn part of him couldn’t shake the guilt he felt at the thought of giving up now that he knew what a bad night this was turning out to be. It was one thing if things happened and he wasn’t there to begin with. He didn’t like that he couldn’t save everyone but he also knew he couldn’t dedicate all his time to being Spiderman. But if anything went wrong tonight and he had just gone home when he could have stopped it, that he couldn’t live with. It didn’t matter that he was sick.

“Peter?” Karen prompted when he didn’t answer her. “Would you like me to contact Mr Stark? Your vitals are falling outside of my acceptable parameters and I’ll have to contact him soon unless you improve.”

That got his attention.

“No Karen really. You don’t need to bother him its ok. Just, just give me a minute,” he replied. Karen fell silent after that. Peter was just about to get up a few minutes later when a familiar, but at this point unwelcome, calm voice came from behind him.

 “So, going to get some rest tonight huh?”

He was busted.

The Ironman suit was hovering behind him and for once Peter half wished that Tony wasn’t in it this time.  He scrambled up as Tony flew over the building in front of him.

“Mr Sta-“ he started as a harsh cough cut him off. Tony sighed as he stepped forward, his face plate lifting away.

“Save it kid. FRIDAY what’s the diagnosis?” Tony asked, his eyes briefly flicking to the side to where his AI usually popped up.

To Peter’s dismay he could hear FRIDAY response. “My scans indicate that Mr Parker has developed some form of bronchitis.”  

“It’s not that bad!” Peter exclaimed, and was immediately undercut by another series of harsh coughs. Tony shot him a levelled glare, very clearly unconvinced by this.

“You know, if you would’ve taken care of this earlier, it wouldn’t be this serious now. Seriously what are you even doing out here tonight?” Tony demanded sounding slightly annoyed.

“I thought my healing factor would take care of it – it was just a cold,” Peter protested between coughs.

“Yeah, well, we can all see how wrong you were there,” Tony responded with as much nonchalance as he could manage, dialling back his annoyance. He sighed again, then continued. “Ok. So here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to take you home to your unfairly attractive aunt. You’re going to do your best not to cough on me while I do this. You’re going to actually stay home this time and I won’t see you until you can at least go an entire conversation without coughing because this is ridiculous.”

Anything Peter wanted to say in response to this was lost in another coughing fit, which he buried in the crook of his arm. When he was done he looked up at Tony who had his arms crossed, waiting for him to finish.

“Yeah. Ok. Let’s go. I’ve already called your aunt by the way so don’t think you’re getting out of that,” Tony continued. 

Peter put his hands up in submission and nodded, not trusting himself to speak anymore. Tony gave no indication that he noticed this besides a slight nod.

“Happy is waiting for us downstairs, he grabbed your spare backpack so don’t worry about a change of clothes. He’ll be up here in a few minutes.” Tony finished, his Ironman suit completely folding away.

The wait for Happy was only slightly awkward. Peter’s throat hurt too much by this point to attempt small talk and Tony gave no indication that he wanted to engage in it. He had his phone out and appeared to answering emails or something, as far as Peter knew.

Happy interrupted the silence exactly three minutes later, holding Peter’s spare backpack. Wordlessly Happy handed him the bag.

“Thanks Happy. We’ll be down shortly,” Tony said without looking up from his phone.  

Rather than change completely Peter just pulled a jumper and pair of jeans over his suit, not wanting to give up the warmth the suit gave him. He was incredibly grateful at this point that when Tony had insisted he start using the old Avengers safehouses he also put a spare change of clothes there too. Just in case.  When he was done changing Tony gestured for him to follow and they got down to the street like normal people for once. Tony didn’t say anything else until they were in the car and well on their way to Peter’s apartment.

“So, want to tell me why you came out tonight,” he asked. “Because that was a pretty dumb move.”

Peter looked over and there was a brief pause before Peter replied hoarsely in a fast rush.

“To be fair Mr Stark I wasn’t going to. Really. But when I checked my phone there was a robbery really close to my place and there were hostages and then I was going to go home, but there was other stuff happening. And I wanted to go home but tonight was especially bad which is kind of not fair cause the rest of the week was slow and-” He was cut off by yet another coughing fit. It went on a touch too long and by the end of it Peter could feel Tony’s hand awkwardly patting his back.

“Alright kid. Ok. Happy we got some water in here?” Tony asked once he was done.

“Yeah boss. Should be some in his spare bag there,” Happy replied.

Peter didn’t have a chance to reach for his bag himself before Tony handed him a bottle of water.

“Ok. Let’s try this again. And don’t talk too much. Just, nod or something. Ok?” Tony said once Peter put the bottle down. Peter nodded for Tony to continue.

“Ok. I wasn’t kidding when I said not to be like me. This self-sacrificing thing is noble I guess but you can’t be there all the time. Trust me I know. If you’re sick you’re allowed to take the night off. Ok?” Tony said.

“I’m sorry Mr Stark, really-” Peter started but was cut off.

“Uh ah no excuses kid, this is where you just nod ok? I’ve definitely pushed through things I shouldn’t have so trust me when I say it’s not worth it. Especially when you could get hurt. Cause that would still be on me.”

Peter coughed before responding. “Ok, ok Mr Stark.”

“Excellent. Also your very attractive aunt is going to have her own words to say about this, so be prepared for that.”  


End file.
